Civil Conflict and Human Capital Accumulation: The Long-Term Effects of Political Violence in Peru

Leon, Gianmarco

Journal of Human Resources, v47 n4 p991-1022 Fall 2012

This paper provides empirical evidence of the persistent effect of exposure to political violence on human capital accumulation. I exploit the variation in conflict location and birth cohorts to identify the long- and short-term effects of the civil war on educational attainment. Conditional on being exposed to violence, the average person accumulates 0.31 less years of education as an adult. In the short term, the effects are stronger than in the long run; these results hold when comparing children within the same household. Further, exposure to violence during early childhood leads to permanent losses. I also explore the potential causal mechanisms. (Contains 3 figures, 10 tables, and 27 footnotes.)